Totally compostable and plant-based sneaker launched by Native Shoes
The plant shoe is 100% Earth friendly, animal free and biodegradable
Native Shoes based in the USA has launched what it believes is “a new frontier in footwear design with a limited-edition ground-breaking, 100% sustainable, biodegradable plant-based shoe”. The launch was reported in the Green Matters website.
The company claims that the Plant Shoe which is made in Portugal is an absolute first of its kind anywhere in the world – a sneaker that is completely animal free and biodegradable. Native Shoes is now firmly established as a part of the trend for vegan fashion.
Over two years in the making the Plant Shoe is 100% Earth friendly unisex sneaker – entirely produced from ingredients that are completely biodegradable, commercially compostable and absolutely animal-free.
Native Shoes has always been animal free. The associated environmental benefits were more by happy accident than by design. But the company began to think more in terms of the recycling programme. So the next step was to eliminate the waste step entirely, by making a shoe that completely biodegrades.
None of the materials are particularly ground-breaking, and they merely used very old techniques with old materials (jute, kenaf, linen, lactae hevea), and worked out how to make them all come together for a modern sneaker. Other ingredients include pineapple, eucalyptus and cotton.
300 million pairs of shoes annually sent to landfill sites
The company claims that 300 million pairs of shoes end up in landfills across the world every year, so clearly there is something very important in this breakthrough. But the design does come with the a price, a $200 price to be exact.
It takes 12 to 13 days to make the shoe’s outsoles according to the company’s spokesperson, whereas a standard pair of sneakers will normally only take one to three days. Additionally the materials and sustainable processes are more expensive.
The company is focused on what it calls “a circular economy” and has promised that by 2023 every pair of Native Shoes will be what it calls “100% lifecycle managed” – truly ethical clothing company.
